Millennial Mage

Tali swayed slightly, reeling as she processed her Master’s request to go to the wild human cities, just to find a way for her to advance.

He really will do anything to help me improve.

+He wants his weapon to be as useful as possible.+

-Those are not mutually exclusive, Tala.-

+I know, but I don’t like the way she says it… He’s not a good person.+

-Tss, of course not. But he is bending what resources he can to improve us.-

+To improve Tali.+

-Yeah. That is an important distinction.-

Tali was floored by her Master’s generosity. She knew that he needed her, but he didn’t have to go this far.

It’s also not a done deal, Tali. Don’t get set on it. But it was the thought that counted. Even if it does happen, it will be after we complete his armor, so it could be weeks at the shortest or years at the longest.

Wild humans had odd ways of advancing, and Tali knew that, since she had a gate, she was more like them than she was like most of those she interacted with on a day-to-day basis.

She didn’t like that very much, except that it was only that feature, which had allowed her to stand out to her Master. It was her gate that had made her able to serve him and bring honor to him and the House.

Revered Sanguis seemed to be thinking quite deeply on the idea, his eyes flicking back and forth in thought.

Finally, he nodded. “That is an interesting proposal. I am willing to bring it to the counsel of Pillars with you. I’ll even support it as I am able. More than that? I cannot promise.”

Her Master bowed graciously. “Of course. Thank you, Revered Pillar.”

The older Pillar turned to his Eskau. “Do these suggestions satisfy you, Eskau Pallaun?”

The obsidian-skinned man gave a thoughtful nod. “I am willing to see how she grows with the proposed solutions. Yes. Thank you, my Pillar.”

“The objections of a wise, trusted servant are worth more than a thousand founts.” He turned back to Tali. “Then, with the suggestions of your Master, I grant you the preliminary title of Eskau, pending the decision of the House Pillars as a whole.”

He looked to her Master.

“You have my approval to access the resources you’ve described. I expect a list of what you will need and what strains you will put on our reserves over the coming months to be delivered to the Steward of the hold by the end of the week.”

He clapped his hands, and servants bustled out. Some came forward to deal with the bodies of the other candidates, others began passing out food.

“Now, we have one more order of business before we feast in celebration of the success of Pillar Be-thric.” Revered Sanguis placed a hand on her Master’s shoulder. “You must decide the fate of your surviving competitors.”

The other, surviving prospective Pillars knelt, and her Master motioned for Tali to accompany him.

He walked to each in turn and asked a single question, “What do you wish of me?” Tali flanked him, standing just behind and to his left, hand on her weapon.

Most gave the same answer, “My life is all that I ask, Pillar.”

That was one of the possible answers prescribed by tradition. It was the safest. It would be incredibly dishonorable for her Master to ask for their deaths after such a request, but it could be done.

Tali would execute them gladly, if such a command were given.

It was not.

Finally, they came to Thorn and Gallof, who were kneeling near one another but still separated by a dozen feet or so.

“What do you wish of me?” Her Master’s tone had something…else to it, an expectancy.

Thorn glanced to Gallof, and they spoke as one. “We wish to serve, Pillar.”

That was a riskier request. If her Master commanded their deaths after they’d asked to serve, there was no loss of honor. After all, dying for one’s House was a great service indeed.

Her Master smiled. “We would be honored to have you join our service. Rise.”

Gallof and Thorn stood as one.

“Thorn, you will attend my Eskau. We will discuss the details later, but I have many ideas.” Her Master’s smile grew with anticipation.

The dwarf bowed at the waist. “I will endeavor to please, Pillar Be-thric.” He then turned to Tali and bowed again. “Eskau Tali, I look forward to assisting you.”

+What are we going to do about him?+

-I’ve no idea. If Tali understood correctly, he will likely be our constant companion for the foreseeable future.-

+Yay…I’m going to have to find a way of being me around him, or this won’t work at all.+

“Gallof, you will attend me. We have many things to arrange for my Eskau, as well as much research to do in regards to the other Houses in the city. We are going to have an incredibly busy next few months.”

The tall, gray-skinned man bowed just as deeply as Thorn had, if more formally. “It will be my honor to serve you, Pillar Be-thric.”

That exchange concluded the formal parts of the ceremony, and the feast began.

* * *

The feast was a mirror of the one held the night before, but now, Thorn and Tali were the only of their peers to remain, and they partook in the food as well, though both did so sparingly.

Tali would have gorged herself, as her reserves had been diminished by the injuries she’d taken and healed during the battle, but her Master had advised her to wait. She would need to eat a LOT soon enough to take advantage of the magical foods they would be gaining for her, and that already likely meant that they’d have to find some way of draining her reserves so that she could eat more.

She and Thorn only exchanged a few words before the festivities came to a close.

When the guests headed towards their rooms, Thorn followed her.

“Can I help you, Thorn?”

He straightened. “I was commanded to attend you, Eskau.”

“You aren’t sleeping in my room.”

He bowed. “As the Eskau wishes.”

+Alright. That’s enough. I’ll be taking over, here.+

* * *

Tala smiled, shifting to a more casual stance. “Please, we don’t need titles here. We’re going to be working closely with one another.”

Thorn hesitated, seeming at a loss. “If you command.”

“I don’t command. That would defeat the entire purpose, Thorn.”

The side of the dwarf’s mouth quirked up, but he suppressed the smile fully a moment later. “Then, it is proper for me to address you with honor, Eskau Tali.”

Tala felt her eye begin to twitch. “Thorn, it seems like we are going to be spending a lot of time together.”

-Hehe. You called?-

Not a great time. Tala mentally glared at her alternate interface. That was clearly not a pun.

“So, when no one else is around? Formality isn’t required.”

“Not required, but still…”

“Not wanted, Thorn. Please?” She scratched the side of her face. How would Tali handle this?

-Easy, she wouldn’t-

Not helpful.

-Fine. Here. This is within the range of what she’d say.-

“This is new to me, Thorn. Pillar Be-thric only found me in the last few years. I’m used to doing menial jobs. I’m used to being the lowest that could be, ignored, scorned, forgotten. I don’t want the spotlight. Please. When we are alone, no titles. I can be Eskau Tali most of the time, but I can’t do it all the time, and it seems like you’re going to be with me, all the time, or very nearly.” There, that will help ensure I don’t have to leave Tali in command for the foreseeable future, because he’ll be around.

The dwarf blinked at her a few times, then nodded slowly. “As…as you wish, Tali.”

Tala almost corrected him. It’s Tala. But that would have been colossally foolish. “Thank you, Thorn.”

Thorn hesitated, opening his mouth to say something, but he seemed to decide otherwise, smiling instead.

“Now, you still can’t sleep in my room. There’s only one bed.”

The dwarf shrugged. “I can sleep outside the door. It would make sense for you to get new rooms tomorrow, and we can finalize arrangements, then.”

Tala still seemed hesitant, but finally nodded. “As you wish. I have to say, though, that sounds really uncomfortable.”

Thorn just laughed. “My folk sleep on stone as a matter of course. It will be more comfortable than I need already.”

Tala gave him a quizzical look. “It’s stone, too. How will it be more comfortable?”

He patted his chest with his off hand. “I have magic. The air here is filled with power, so it is nothing to expend a bit to aid in my sleep.”

Tala cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

They continued to walk through the hold as they spoke.

“You use magic to aid in your sleep? How?”

Thorn gave her an odd look. “It is a simple thing. Were you not…” He shook his head. “My apologies, Tali. When I look at you, I don’t see the human that you clearly are. Humans do not have innate giftings with magic. I think I remember hearing that your folk often call what we do ‘conceptual magic?’ ”

Does Tali know that term?

-Vaguely, yeah.-

“I believe I’ve heard that term, yes. Everyone in the House just refers to it as magic, or power.”

Thorn nodded. “Good, good. Well, let me prove my use to you. I cannot teach you what you cannot learn, but I can show you the principles, and you should be able to adapt it to your own style of magic in time.”

They reached Tali’s room and stopped outside the door.

Thorn sat, putting his back to the wall beside that entrance. “Watch closely.”

There was a pull of power into the dwarf, followed by a push of magic outward, now aspected with the dwarf’s signature, under his control.

The expelled power began to swirl around him, moving in lazy patterns.

-Those are spell-forms. Incredibly crude spell-forms-

The regular intake and exhalation of power shifted to match the dwarf’s breathing as he sank deeper into the exercise, power building up in the spell-forms he wove around himself.

The power wasn’t being expended. Instead, it was almost like it was being put into a perpetual cycle.

Like an archon star, but with a different form.

Thorn spoke then, slowly. “With this, I will fall asleep quickly, and the rest I receive from my sleep will be greater than without. This helps heal the body and helps recover from illness among other things. There are even variations that you can use upon others, for parents or healers to enact on their children or patients.”

While complex in totality, the form was nothing more than a simple twisting, interlocking pattern, repeated uncounted times. Tala analyzed it for a long moment before straightening and smiling. “Thank you, Thorn. I will see if I can match that.”

“Good night, Eskau Tali.”

“Good night, Thorn.”

Tala stepped through the door to her room and closed it behind herself.

-That is fascinating. There wasn’t any complexity to it at all. It is simply suffusing the body and surrounding area with self-perpetuating power, already keyed to be usable by that person.-

So, it’s like faking being a higher rank? A higher magic capacity?

-At its base level, yes, but it will only augment slow-flow, natural magics. It cannot be used in those imposed upon the body until they ‘set.’ And I doubt it would work well for any sort of combat application.-

My passive magics have been set, right?

-For the most part, yes.-

Then, let’s try this. Tala sighed. I still wish we could go into Kit.

-As we discussed last night, Tali has never gone into our dimensional storage. Thus, doing so, now, would be hard for her to reconcile when she remembered it. I could hide the memory, but that would create an obvious blank space that would stand out if Be-thric ever decided to delve Tali’s mind again.-

And if there aren’t inconsistencies, he shouldn’t be able to tell we’re in here.

-Precisely. I doubt he will check, but in case we make a mistake, it is better to be prepared.-

Fine… She patted her pouch, whispering to her item. “I’ll get back to the proper use of you and your abilities, soon. Thank you for sticking with me.”

Kit did not respond.

“Okay, let’s try this.”

* * *

Tala did not succeed that night.

She did succeed in using her aura to weave power around herself, but it didn’t really seem to do anything for her.

Thankfully, her already augmented physiology needed vastly less sleep than she otherwise would have.

Thus, it was still incredibly early when she pulled her door open, intending to head towards her training area.

Thorn was asleep beside the door, but his eyes snapped open as soon as it clicked shut behind her.

“Oh! You’re awake.” He looked up at the false sky. “Still quite early. Does that mean it worked? I wouldn’t have expected you to master it so quickly, but stranger things have happened.”

Tala shook her head. “No, but I already need less sleep because of my magics.”

He stood and stretched. “Then, you seem to have already learned how to use the technique in your own style, before I ever brought it up.”

She shook her head again. “No, no. Your technique augments all your natural magics, at least as they pertain to you. Mine is just using my magics.”

Thorn cocked his head. “Really? That’s fascinating. The concept behind the working, at least as I cast it, is: Recovery, Perfected.”

“Fascinating.” And it really was. Does that mean they have something like a fundamental understanding behind every working? No, that didn’t seem right.

-That’s not a fundamental concept so much as an injunction for something to be different than it otherwise would be. It is the imposition of a concept upon reality, hence conceptual magic.-

Tala took a deep breath and shrugged. “Well, I’m going to go do some exercises and training. Care to join me?”

“What? Before breakfast?” He groused a bit. “I’ll come with you, as is my mandate, but I don’t know if I’ll join you in the work.”

“Suit yourself.”

They walked through the hold; the few servants they passed bowed lower than ever before as Tala passed them.

Thorn walked behind her and to her left, just as Tali had walked behind Be-thric.

I suppose Thorn and I have a similar relationship now, to what Be-thric and Tali had, don’t we?

She looked back at the dwarf, a thought coming together as she expressed it, “You know, if you’re to be useful in combat, you need to retrain yourself to not rely on a protian weapon.”

Thorn grimaced at that, then nodded. “You speak truly, Tali. I will consider the advice.”

They crossed one of the gracefully arching bridges to the large, circular platform that Tali was accustomed to using. Tala did her best not to stare. It was all so new to her, but it wouldn’t be to Tali.

She felt like she’d seen dozens of paintings of a beautiful vista, and then, she had gone to see it herself.

Except I’m not allowed to revel in the majesty of seeing it in person.

-We all make sacrifices.-

Once there, Tala went through her stretches and exercises, working herself up towards the forms of the Way of Flowing Blood.

Thorn sat in ‘meditation.’

Did…did he fall back asleep?

-He’s right next to the edge. We should push him in.-

Why?

-…you wouldn’t get it.-

You are confusing sometimes.

Tala moved through the forms of the Way of Flowing Blood, trying to rely on Tali’s experience, while integrating the movements more deeply into herself.

“What are you doing?” Thorn had cracked one eye open.

Oh, so not asleep?

Tala paused, holding a particularly difficult pose. “What do you mean?”

“You’re moving like a stiff puppet wielded by a master puppeteer. What are you doing?”

“I…” Tala sighed and straightened. What do I say? What lie will he buy? “I’m trying to go through the motions without thinking about them. I’m trying to let them seep into my subconscious instead of thinking about how to move.” She knew her tone was defensive. She couldn’t help herself. I’m trying…

He cocked his head. “That is a basic step in becoming proficient with any fighting art. So, shouldn’t you have done that already? Why are you acting like this is new to you?”

-Well, that didn’t work. Lie again. Maybe he’ll believe you this time.-

Hush.

He continued before she could think of anything else to say. “In fact, I’d say you are over thinking it, by how you’re moving.” He stood. “I was curious about your performance yesterday. It almost seemed like you were incredibly nervous at first, but then, eventually, got into the flow of things. Is that it? Yesterday, you were able to fall into a different mental state part way through?”

Tala grimaced, then took a deep breath and nodded. “I can enter into another frame of mind, in which fighting is much easier than normal. I’m trying to replicate that without the mental shift. I become too narrowly focused in that state, too unaware of what’s going on outside of my opponents. I think it will get me killed if I’m not careful.”

He grunted. “Well, why didn’t you say that to begin with. That’s pretty common, all things considered. Come on. These forms are designed to be performed against a partner.” He gave her a half grin. “I won’t use my magics if you don’t cut off my head.”

Tala found herself smiling in return. “As you say, Thorn. Thank you.”

For the next couple of hours, they sparred. Through the process, Tala picked up and integrated the movements much more easily, since she could actually work against an opponent.

Thorn was a master of these arts. If Tala remembered correctly, the dwarf had more than a decade of experience, and it showed.

By the time that the fake sun rose, Tala felt like she was approaching Tali’s level of proficiency.

Unfortunately, in combat where fractions of a second meant the difference between life and death, she still might need to rely on Tali in a pinch, but Tala was satisfied that the number of situations in which that would be the case had been drastically reduced.

As the two of them bowed to each other, Tala smiled. “Thank you, M- Thorn.” She had almost called him ‘master Thorn’ on reflex. That would have been a bit awkward.

“I am glad that I could assist.”

She hesitated at that. After a moment’s consideration, she decided to just ask him, “Why did you and your master ask to serve?”

The green-skinned dwarf shrugged, his silvery hair shimmering in the new-day’s light. “My master was never a great or high-ranking member of the House of Blood. He was clever enough to forge a protian weapon, and he had enough wealth to buy me as his candidate, but if we’d lost, as we did, there was nothing really to fall back on. Entering into the service of the new Pillar and his Eskau is a solid means of securing our future.”

“Buy you? Were you not already a part of the House of Blood?”

“No, I was not.” He didn’t elaborate further, and Tala didn’t push.

It seems like we’ll have a lot more to learn about him, in time.

-Indeed it does.-